Currently, cooking cavity temperatures are monitored by a temperature sensor that is located at the back of the cavity. Typically, this sensor is located behind the baffle plate that separates the meals that are contained inside the cavity from the oven's hardware, such as the heating elements and the blower wheel. The temperature sensor is designed to turn the heating elements on and off, depending upon the temperature of the cooking cavity. This can be referred to as “cycling” of the oven.
The baffle plate is designed to control air distribution in the cooking cavity. It may have an opening in the middle that pulls in air from the cooking cavity. Heated air can then be allowed to travel around sides of the baffle plate, back to the cooking cavity in order to create an air loop.
In one aspect, the temperature sensor can be programmed to prompt the heaters to switch off at a pre-set temperature. Because the rear of the oven (which is where the sensor and the heating elements are located) will heat more quickly than the interior of the cooking cavity, this pre-set temperature is generally lower than the temperature of the rest of the cooking cavity. This means that shutting off the heating elements at the pre-set temperature results in uneven temperatures throughout the cooking cavity. The ambient temperature behind the baffle plate does not reflect the ambient temperature in the rest of the cooking cavity, as the temperature in this area may be considerably higher than the rest of the cooking cavity. In this scenario, the temperatures at the front of the cooking cavity are lower than the temperatures at the back of the cooking cavity. This can result in large variations of meal temperatures, longer cooking times, and variations in meal quality.